


In Sunlight, Darkness

by FireEye



Category: The Arcana (Visual Novel)
Genre: Multi
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2018-12-25
Updated: 2018-12-25
Packaged: 2019-09-26 20:19:12
Rating: Teen And Up Audiences
Warnings: Creator Chose Not To Use Archive Warnings
Chapters: 1
Words: 1,180
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/17148443
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/FireEye/pseuds/FireEye
Summary: Asra's acting strange again, but he's been strange since...oh.





	In Sunlight, Darkness

**Author's Note:**

  * For [infernal](https://archiveofourown.org/users/infernal/gifts).



If there was one thing Muriel was swiftly becoming certain of, it was that magic made even the most sane people mad.

Ivy rustled.  The servant’s gate scraped open, unheard amidst the commotion of the Palace.  Shadow cloaked the slender form that emerged, falling away as he stepped away from the wall.  Starlight danced in his hair; Asra looked exhausted, but exhilarated.

 _Euphoric_.

There was a time in his life when that expression would have gotten a smile out of him, despite himself.  These days, not so much.  Tonight?

Every last hair on the back of his neck stood on end.

The magician’s smile deepened.  Faust slithered restlessly over his shoulders, back and forth, forth and back; an oroborus of her own making.

“Good,” he said.  “You’re here.”

Muriel’s eyes narrowed.

“What did you do?”

Asra ignored the question.  He reached for Muriel’s arm, brushing his hand along it as he walked past.  For the briefest of moments, Muriel felt the flutter of his heartbeat beneath his palm, erratic and weak.  Whatever he’d done, whatever he was doing, he’d spread himself thin.

“I’m going to need your help.”

Muriel refused to move.  Refused to allow himself to be moved.

“Asra...”

Asra’s composure cracked.

He smile took on a peculiar edge as he planted himself directly in front of Muriel.  The passion that gripped him didn’t wane; if anything, it fed the eerie desperation in the depths of his voice.

“ _Please_.  I need you.  Everything will be alright in the end.  More than alright, I promise.  It’ll... It’ll all be like it used to be.”

Muriel’s scowl deepened.

What the hell was that supposed to mean?

***

Before they had even reached the forest’s edge, Muriel’s misgivings had reached a fever pitch.  He did his best to ignore them, but it had been a long night.  And now, _this_.

The forest was steeped in the glow of magic.

Every last leaf and vine and flower was aflame, a kaleidoscopic rainbow of colors that moved with a life of its own.  A sheer torrent of energy, and it was all flowing in one direction.

Asra followed the energy.

Muriel followed Asra.

He ignored the radiant smile that the magician shot his way.  Instead, he watched the translucent whorls that caught in Asra’s hair.

Whatever it was grew stronger the further they went.  Within the caves, it grew stronger still.  Static crackled over their skin and iridescence bloomed and faded underfoot with every step they took.  They reached the deep stone shore, where wildfire whispered across the surface of the underground spring.

At the center of the spring, in the center of it all, the energy poured into a still form, curled on one side at the heart of the lily pad.

A sound was ripped from Asra.  It cut Muriel to the heart – his exhilaration, anguish, hope, dread... everything that had submerged itself in the long walk to get here, was bubbling right back up to the surface.  Before he understood what it _meant_ , Asra had darted out onto the water.

Doubt wormed its way into his chest, and Muriel clambered after him.  A part of him wondered if Asra was right in the head; but then, a part of him hadn’t been.  Not in years, not since...

Muriel reached Asra’s side, and hissed through his teeth.  A backward step nearly took him into the water.

Asra knelt by the woman, his touch tentative at first.  Then, shrugging out of his cloak, he gathered her into it and into his arms.  There was a tiny croon in his throat as he buried his face against her shoulder.  A sob.  A broken giggle.  That same strange euphoria from before.

Same difference.

Muriel found his voice.

“What have you _done_?”

“What have I done?  What do your eyes tell you I’ve done?”

The woman in Asra’s arms was dead.  But she was alive.  Living-dead and breathing and...

“Something incredibly foolish.”

Asra laughed, rich and full.  As though Muriel was somehow teasing him, and he was in on the joke.

“I did what I had to.”  As if that made it all better.  “Don’t you see that?”

The lily pad sank under him as Muriel shifted his weight.  He glanced at the distant shore.

“Muriel, help me,” Asra asked of him.  “Help me bring her home.”

Because of course he would; he didn’t see anything dangerous about all this.

***

It wasn’t true.  It wasn’t _real_.  It couldn’t have been, no matter how much he might have wanted it to be, for _Asra_ ’s sake... to say nothing of his own, or the woman whose form he’d carried through a living forest and a dying city’s streets.

People didn’t just come back from the dead, least of all people who had been burned to ash.

Faust dangled from the rafter above him as Muriel paced restlessly.  He kept as far from the bed as he could, where Asra sat, alongside the softly sleeping woman.  A woman who was the eerie likeness of a woman he’d known.  A woman he’d cared about, and missed, and who’d _died_....

It wasn’t real, it couldn’t have worked, people died and that was the end, people _died_...

She wasn’t coming back.

Muriel chewed his lip, wandering closer to the bed.

Whoever this woman was, she wasn’t even waking up.  Worry had crept into Asra’s expression as time slipped past.  He glanced up at Muriel, and forced a smile.

“It’ll be okay,” Asra assured him.  “It’s powerful, it... it needs some time to work, is all.”

Muriel frowned down at the sleeping woman.  Her chest fluttered with her breath.  Every once in a while, she twitched as though trapped in a dream.  But if it was a dream, it was one Asra hadn’t been able to penetrate.  And Muriel was loathe to try.

He reached for Asra’s hand, fingers brushing the woman’s shoulder near where it sat.  She stirred, and he snatched it back.

Asra sucked in a breath as her eyes fluttered open, and held it as he helped her sit up.  He touched her face, running his thumb along her cheek.  Her eyes narrowed; her fingers brushed his, then she mirrored the gesture, reaching out to him.

Asra beamed at him; unrestrained joy.  Perplexed, the woman followed his gaze.

Muriel’s heart froze in his chest.

Her eyes were completely empty.  No recognition.  No soul.  Nothing.

But that only made sense, didn’t it?

You couldn’t come back from the dead.

She blinked at him slowly.  He tore himself away, and made straight for the stairs.

“Muriel?” Asra called after him, “Where are you going?”

“Somewhere else,” Muriel called back.

Anywhere else.

“But-...”

Asra followed him down, catching his arm before he could reach the door.  Muriel shrugged him off.

“You got what you wanted,” he growled.  “Leave me out of it.”

“But...”  Asra stared up at him.  Then looked away.  Then swallowed.  “I’ll... we’ll be here, you know?  Whenever you need us.”

Muriel sighed, turning for the door.  “I know.”

If Asra wanted to live in a dream, Muriel couldn’t stop him.

**Author's Note:**

> ...this is a fandom I picked up this year because Yuletide, so... uh... thank you? I apologize for any characterization wibbles while I get my balance. ;)
> 
> For the record, Muriel's opinion isn't necessarily informed here. But it's gotta be a little startling, this 'back from the dead' business.


End file.
